Madam Wheels brings women together in a sense of belonging at a moment in history when meaningful connection has become critical. The fact that we do so around extraordinary cars takes things to an exciting new level. With champagne sunsets, fine-dining and luxurious accommodation included in the mix, guests are assured of an exhilarating, addictive and utterly unforgettable experience.
Those stratospheric valuations go a long way to explaining why we rarely see such cars on the roads, here or overseas. Unless you visit classic car shows like Melbourne’s Motorclassica or the more lavish affairs offshore, you’ll rarely see such valuable vintage vehicles cruising the public byways. So when a set of special wheels makes itself available to be touched and admired – even sat in – by the general public, it’s an opportunity worth taking up, especially given how quickly automotive design, functionality and technology is moving ahead.
Madam Wheels got experience how such a car might feel while it was parked this week front and centre in the Mercedes Me Store in Melbourne. It felt like a kid on a car ride in a games arcade.We didn’t get to drive it, however, which was perhaps no bad thing. The car’s roof and windows were down on what was Melbourne’s coldest day in May in almost 20 years – roughly the same amount of time it took Mercedes-Benz to make another four-seater cabriolet after the W111 in the W124.
An over sized cream steering wheel dominated the driver’s seat, leaving to the imagination the possibilities for a pilot unleashed on the roads.Mercedes’ Bruce says classic cars like the 280 SE are particularly popular in the Me Store.
“This is one of the few opportunities the average person will get to see cars like these for themselves,” Bruce says. “To be able to showcase privately-owned cars and some brand heritage in the store is, I think, very unique.”It’s an offering which resonates with the store’s audience, he says, which averages about 600 people a day stopping in for drinks, to dine or to participate in the store’s series of diverse lifestyle events. “They like to see concept cars, and the modern fleet but the heritage and the classics are timeless,” he says. “We love bringing in new communities and we’ve got the platform to really change perceptions about what the brand stands for and how innovative we are now.”
Overall, the 280 SE Cabriolet was a beautiful thing, with its wide red leather seats, luxuriously length and elegant lines. Never mind the lack of digital display, windows controlled with a button or heated seats/steering wheel/windscreen/center console/arm rest.
And of course it pre-dated parking sensors, adaptive cruise control, lane assist and any notion of autonomous driving. You’d be on your own in a drive like this. There in, perhaps, lies the appeal. That notion of being in total control, confident that one’s innate facilities need to be switched on. That’s what driving used to be about, after all. But that was then. This is now. The future awaits.
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